Juvenile Justice in Illinois: A Data Snapshot (April 2014)
Nationally, there’s been a steady decrease in the rate of violent crime committed by juveniles over the past fifteen years. In 2011, the serious violent crime1 offending rate was 6 crimes per 1,000 juveniles ages 12–17, with a total of 154,000 such crimes involving juveniles. This was similar to the rate in 2010, but it was significantly lower than the 1993 peak rate of 52 crimes per 1,000 juveniles ages 12–17.

Yet, for years, more and more juveniles were being arrested and locked up. This trend has been reversed in the past few years. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2014), there were 1.47 million arrests of young people under 18 years old in 2011, an 11 percent decrease since 2010. In addition:

Juevenile Justice SnapshotThis report presents key juvenile justice data in the North Lawndale community. North Lawndale is notorious for the number of its youth who are in trouble with the law. Living next door to the largest juvenile jail in the nation, many of Lawndale's youth find themselves swept into the juvenile legal system.